A Very Local East London Diary

January 03, 2011

The Tesco Express is on its way

Shortly before Christmas and just a couple of weeks after the final push of the local anti-Tesco campaign failed to get the Council's planning committee to block the arrival of a Tesco Express in Lower Clapton Road, I saw men preparing the site for the shop-fitting to come. The blue fence cordon around the premises is the most visible result. I don't know if an opening date has been fixed, but I doubt it is far off.

And so the scene is set for an intriguing test of the thesis that the arrival of Tesco means certain death for independent retailers with all the undesirable knock-on effects that can entail: boarded-up shops, a damaged local economy, a duller, more homogenised neighbourhood. It's not a happy thought. But as I've argued before, plenty of local people will welcome a branch of a supermarket chain - unless, that is, Tesco has made a hash of judging the market, something it is hardly famous for.

It will be fascinating to see how established rival stores like Palm 2 and Fairdeal respond to the challenge of the giant. Can they hope to compete on price for basic goods like bread and milk? Should they even try to, and instead specialise more in the hope of boosting trade among a loyal clientele with niche requirements and tastes? Given the recent disappearance of two butchers from Lower Clapton Road, Tesco seems set to do well in that department. How will Mike's Meats in Clarence Road be affected? Could they profit from exploiting anti-Tesco sentiment?

In the end, it's all brutally simple. The survival of independent traders will depend on the willingness of local people to give them enough of their custom. with that in mind I've already reduced my use of supermarket home delivery services from once a week to once a fortnight - from Sainsbury's since you ask - and am spending more of my money at Palm 2 and elsewhere. The only course of resistance now left to Tesco-resistors is to do the same.

Comments

Hopefully it will work out. Planning isn't there to stop competition. But it's now up to locals to decide if they're going to choose Tesco, or choose other local shops. You can't seek to prevent Tesco simply to avoid the temptation on your doorstep!

I live extremely close to the new Tesco Express and mostly use Palm 2 for my shopping. I actually think Palm 2 will survive the shop opening, they are very friendly, have enough uniqueness and a willingness to supply what the community want (just see their suggestion pad). The owner will experience a drop in sales no doubt and the people that will suffer are his staff and the businesses that he supports - which is a massive shame.
Other shops won't fare so well. The newsagent across the street can't handle even a small drop in income before he will have to fold, after 30 years of business.

But I don't think the argument is restricted to this one shop. Tesco Express are opening up at a massive rate at the moment, just look at the second shop in Dalston or the application for one 50 doors down from the existing one on Bethnal Green Road - there is even a new Tesco Express beside Hackney Downs station half a mile from Clapton Pond. There are plenty of shops that they could snap up on Lower Clapton Road, so how long before there are more? How long before there is no choice and it is just Tesco or Tesco? Then how many deals will they need to do to pull people in?

I've heard a lot of arguments for and against, people will choose to shop there for their own reasons, I will have to walk past it to get to Palm 2, but I will certainly not be shopping there.

My campaign against Tesco in Clapton: I took a quite active role in this campaign for a while, speaking at the first planning committee meeting. What did I learn from it? That there apparently wasn't much the council could do, had it even wanted to, to prevent this shop from opening, as this was mostly a private matter between a housing association and Tesco. I therefore chose the only route which was open to us: object against the main application (allowring deliveries). I did so on the grounds of public safety given that these will be taking place at a bus stop and on a red route. I failed. We failed. I still believe that, had the opposition to the plan been greater, the planning committee wouldn't have created a precedent in lifting delivery restrictions to these premises, thus creating a precedent for many other shops throughout the borough. In the end, we will have an umpteenth Tesco shop opening before yet another one appears on Kingsland Rd: that will make 5 shops between Hoxton and Stamford Hill. What ever happened to the diversity Hackney's mayor wrote about in their manifesto?
Thanks for voicing a diversity of opinions.

Special Offer: 2 for the price of 2.
Tesco is moving into the empty premises following this strong but unsuccessful campaign. Before that, bookies had applied to move there, from just 2 doors up the road, but had been stopped by objections. It wouldn’t have meant an extra bookies in Hackney, just a move, as may also happen opposite the round chapel.
As a result, we will have both bookies and Tesco, with the clients of the latter being able to withdraw free cash from the former.
Wouldn’t you prefer having had bookies instead of both?
That’s what I asked and no, some people wouldn’t… Another example of ambivalence.

I still think that the opposition was the plan of staff, planning committee could not create a precedent for eliminating the restrictions on the supply of these premises, which creates a precedent for many other shops in neighborhood.